Media Formats

Amazon MP3 Store - Digital Music Format

The Amazon MP3 Store delivers music in MP3 format -- the most widely compatible music file format supported by most media player applications, hand-held music devices, and some CD and DVD players. Here's more information about music files from the Amazon MP3 Store:

• Bit Rate: Where possible, we encode our MP3 files using variable bit rates for optimal audio quality and file sizes, aiming at an average of 256 kilobits per second (kbps). Using a variable bit rate allows us to allocate a higher bit rate to the more complex sections of music files while using a smaller bit rate for the less complex sections. The average of these rates is then calculated to produce an average bit rate for the entire file that represents the overall sound quality. Some of our content is encoded using a constant bit rate of 256 kbps. This content will have the same excellent audio quality at a slightly larger file size.
• File Size: A typical 3-minute song takes up approximately 5MB of storage space.
• Download Times: A single MP3 file 5MB in size will download in less than one minute on a typical broad-band Internet connection. A similar download on a 56k dial-up connection can take up to 30 minutes.
• Album Cover Art: Album cover art is included with each song you purchase.

Digital Video Formats

The videos are available in two formats: H.264/AAC within a .mp4 container and VC-1/WMV9 within a .wmv container. H.264/AAC is compatible Macintosh computers. VC-1/WMA is compatible on Windows computers. If iTunes is your primary media player, use H.264. If Windows Media Player is your primary media player, use VC-1.

Here's more information about digital video files:

.mp4 files

• Codecs:
  • Video: H.264
  • Audio: AAC
• Bit Rate:
  • Video: 1.5Mbps
  • Audio: 256Kbps
• File Size: A typical 3-minute video in either takes up approximately 40MB of storage space.
• Download Times: A single video file 40MB in size will download in approximately 5 minutes or less on a typical broad-band Internet connection.

.wmv files

• Codecs:
  • Video: VC-1
  • Audio: WMV9
• Bit Rate:
  • Video: 1.5Mbps
  • Audio: 256Kbps
• File Size: A typical 3-minute video in either takes up approximately 40MB of storage space.
• Download Times: A single video file 40MB in size will download in approximately 5 minutes or less on a typical broad-band Internet connection.

[+digital booklet] Products

When you see "[+digital booklet]" on a product detail page, this means a digital booklet is included with the album purchase. The digital booklet is available as a PDF and can be viewed using Adobe Reader.

Here's more information about digital booklet files:

• PDF format: Portable Document Format (PDF) files are viewable with Adobe Reader or another PDF reader. Download Adobe Reader.

[+video] Products

When you see "[+video]" on a product detail page, this means the album has video content included with the album purchase.

Amazon Cloud Player -- Digital Music Format

Amazon Cloud Player supports the import, playback and download of non-DRM files in the .mp3 and .m4a formats.

Amazon Cloud Player also supports the import of eligible .wma (Windows only), .ogg, .wav, Apple Lossless (Mac OS only), .aiff, and .flac files where we have rights to provide you access to high-quality 256 kbps .mp3 files using variable bitrate encoding from Amazon's MP3 catalogue.

Files uploaded from your computer are stored in their original codec and bit rate. Files downloaded using Cloud Player are downloaded in the bit rate and codec they are stored in.